Western Australians have been enjoying the luxury of isolation
from other COVID states, hitting the road in record numbers.
But for me, it's never just your everyday drive in the country.
I'm Chris Kerr, I'm an advocate,
a radio broadcaster and producer with the ABC in Geraldton.
I'm just wondering, do you have any wheelchair accessible accommodation?
As a wheelchair user,finding suitable accommodation and accessible toilets
are always foremost on my mind when I travel.
It's not that there aren't accessible options out there,
it's just knowing where to find them.
Let's look for somewhere to stop and have a coffee
and see if we can find a toilet.
There's a parking sign and some toilet signs, so that's a good sign.
Get it.
Oh, look, there's a wheelchair toilet down there.
Yeah, but how do we get there, there's all these stairs?
Let's have a look around the back shall we?
Maybe we can park down there.
Government is already driving better accessibility and now it's up
to tourism and accommodation providers to do their part.
I was just wondering if I could get someone from maintenance
to come down and give me a hand to take the wheels off the bed please.
Yeah, yeah, it's just a little bit high,
and I can't get into it easily.
So I can't just hire or rent a regular room,
I've always got to find the accessible room, and most often or not
they come at a price, which is more than what a standard room costs.
Then there's all the little things like finding
and getting into shops,
carrying a coffee.
And reaching the supplies.
Oh, can you just come and grab the cups for me, please?
When you're on holiday, seeing the sights is part of the experience.
And then there's some great examples of how well it can work
when accessibility is included from the start.
How nice is this?
It's just those small design considerations
that make all the difference.
So you can come with your friends
and family and you can actually get under the tables
and you can join in the conversation without feeling
like you're perched on the edge.
And for me,
I've been coming around this area on and off for 30 years
and used to have to wait in the hotel and read a book while my family
and friends came out here and got to see this magnificent part of the world.
Or else I'd wait in the car because the pathways
weren't accessible and it was too steep and hilly.
So it's just opened up a whole new way of seeing the world that's on our doorstep.
And for many people with disabilities, it's something they get denied, especially
in the outdoors.
To have
access really changes the game for someone and their family
to be able to do stuff together without those endless compromises
about how much you can do and how far you can go
and whether it's accessible or not, or whether you just say
you go and have a great time and mean it genuinely mean it.
But miss out on that opportunity to do stuff together.
It sucks.
It's not a good feeling to know that people have to
do those kind of compromises because of you,
but you can't dwell on it because otherwise you don't
do anything because, you know, there's a lot of the world that isn't accessible.
The world wasn't built flat.
But we need to make sure that moving forward
it is, and that people with disabilities of all sorts can participate.